This role had been established long before the Gothic age. Members of the municipal council met in the cathedral and justice was sometimes administered at its doors. Shops and businesses sprang up along the outer walls, and the first university schools were housed within cathedral complexes. Merchants used cathedrals as places to meet clients and close deals. In some ways, a cathedral was the medieval equivalent of a public forum. Part of this money was also channeled back to the community in the form of improvements, such as hospitals, roads and bridges. They also managed the deduction of funds for the cathedral from the collection of rents and local taxes. The chapter (formed by the canons or priests of the cathedral) would meet to discuss diocesan matters in the cathedral choir, a space that at other times was dedicated to prayer. Inside the sacred space, there was also a fair amount of day-to-day governance going on. One of Europe’s first cathedrals is the fourth-century Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, the seat of the pope in his capacity as bishop of Rome.Ĭathedrals not only were used to celebrate Christian rites but also became hubs of political power during the Middle Ages. It’s technical definition is a church that houses a cathedra (Latin for “bishop’s throne”). The term “cathedral” has evolved into a sort of catch-all descriptor for large, grand churches.
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